oes at : aie Spates 2 WSC memorabilia needed is he: Weber State College Comment, January 1988, Page 8 by Edie Hester Executive Director WSC Alumni Association Don’t pitch those pictures. Don’t ignite those invitations.. And don’t crush those clippings. That Box of junk stashed in the basement next to the Rudy Vallee record collection may be just what the WSC alumni office is after. WSC will soon celebrate its 100th birthday and we are trying to builda record of those 100 years. We are eager to accept alumni memorabilia. This could include photographs, old programs, dance cards, freshmen beanies, special publications and invitations, sorority and fraternity material, club news and reports, drama and musical production materials, posters, newspaper clippings, personal papers, -research material from WSC emeriti and even correspondence. We would be happy to meet with anyone who has material to donate, or people can box up the materials and mail them to the WSC Alumni Office. The kinds of materials that best reflect the development of the institution include administrative and faculty correspondence, minutes of meetings and committee reports, planning documents, records of the Board of Regents/Institutional Council, student and personnel records, enroll- ment statistics and budget reports. Also of importance are student and faculty newspapers, yearbooks, annual reports from all departments and histories of former Regents/Institutional Council members, college administrators, emeriti and alumni. If you have questions, or if you have materials to donate call me at (801) 626- 6569. Soe a ahh $ Alumni Center construction approved Construction of an Alumni Center to house the WSC Alumni Association has received approval, and will be constructed as part of the college’s Centennial Celebration. in conjunction with Founders’ Day celebrations in the spring,” Lofgreen said. Money will be raised in many ways, allowing for a wide range of support from alumni, he said. The Alumni Association The WSC Institutional Council recently gave the alumni organization approval to will start work on a center that will cost an estimated $350,000. The council stipulated, however, that the total cost for the center must come from private donations. “We are excited at the prospect of having a place for alumni to call home, and to visit when they return to campus. The current location of the alumni offices in the Miller Administration Building has been cramped and is inconvenient for visitors,” said John C. Lofgreen, alumni president. The Alumni Center will be located on the south side of campus, immediately west of the college residence halls. The building will have a lounge and display area, areception room, aconference room, four offices.and a secretarial area. , “An architect will be hired in the near future and the official fund drive will begin building, and will conduct a “Buy a Brick” campaign which will give alumni the chance to donate and have their name on a special brick wall as a contributor to the Alumni Center. “We know that alumni will be receptive to our request for assistance to make this Alumni Center the most outstanding facility of its kind in the area,” Lofgreen said. The fund drive is directed by Paul Neuenschwander, a member of the WSC Alumni Board of Directors who serves on the executive committee of the Centennial Fund Drive. Co-chairs for the Alumni make direct contacts for major donations, will memorialize rooms of the Center portion of the drive are Bruce Nilson, an Ogden contractor and developer, and Robert Lindquist, local businessman and a member of the Alumni Board. romanticidolsfadin Collegiate athletics losing its footing by Phil Tuckett here once was a time when America’s collegiate football heroes were idolized and idealized. For instance, very few people in the 20’s knew that Notre Dame’s legendary running back George Gipp (of "win-onefor-the Gipper" fame) was actually a bit of a rounder who rarely went to class and had to be hustled out of local pool halls by Knute Rockne when it was time for practice. But in the movies it took the president of our United States to play the cleaned-up version of George Gipp, the All-American boy. Today’s headlines paint a far less romantic picture of what college athletics is all about. Two University of Miami starters can’t play in the Orange Bowl because they flunk a drug test. Earl Bruce is fired as Ohio State’s head football coach despite the highest winning percentage in the Big Ten because some power alumni i pein ie nies lace = 53 The WSC Alumni Center has an estimated $350,000 price tag, and all funds for the building's construction must come from privatesources. don’t like his looks. Auburn University loses one of its stars before the Sugar bowl when he admits to accepting money from an agent. SMU violates so many recruiting rules that the NCAA gives its football team the “Death Penalty” by cancelling its entire 1987 schedule. In this atmosphere of cynicism it’s easy to understand why some alumni and members of the academic community are beginning to doubt the wisdom of a full commitment to college athletics, espe- cially ata time when funds are tight across the board. As a former Weber State football player and now an observer of the college scene through my work as a filmmaker I can empathize with strong feelings on both sides of this controversial question. I know how competitive zeal and school pride can cause an alumnus to get carried away and start handing out money. I also can understand why this would disgust the head of a school’s chemistry department who is trying to work within a budget that’s not large enough to keep the lab open after hours to give interested students a chance for extra study. I can sense the frustration of a head coach who wants to play it straight, yet must compete against programs that he knows are dirty. I can also identify with the outrage of a school president who finds the integrity of his institution compromised with national publicity generated by a disclosure that transcripts have been altered to keep a player eligible. But I believe the difficult, complicated job of doing it right is the very reason that college athletics is a valuable and unique part of the college experience. We go to school to gain knowledge; both theoretical and practical. I can truthfully say that the time I spent learning to block linebackers on the football field was just as important to my success in the so-called “real world” as the book bashing I did as an English major. My English professors couldn’t have cared less about how many passes I caught on the previous Saturday, and Coach Arslainian wasn’t about to start me as a result of the pungent and provocative essay I had just written on “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot. Ofcourse there are easy ways if we want to take them, and of course there are some tough decisions to be made about priorities. But isn’t that what college is supposed to be all about; learning to make the right choice at the appropriate time? I imagine other Weber State alumni have found a similar joy of self-expression in extra curricular activities such as drama, dance or music. Football is no different than any of these endeavors except that its We’ll probably never see a return to those naive days when so little was expected of athletes that they had no accountability, and that’s good. But let’s hope more success stories begin to share the headlines with those lurid exposes of all that’s wrong with jocks in America. Once the pendulum of public opinion swings back toward the middle a bit perhaps we’ll have a better perspective of where athletics fits into campus life. In my mind it’s simply another excellent way for students to find out who they are and where they are headed. Mr. Tuckett is vice profileis higher. Make mistakes like SMU or lose 41 straight like Columbia and the news gets shouted coast to coast. Because of this fact, football programs that play it straight and succeed like Notre Dame, Penn State, BYU, and yes, Weber State, can reflect greater national glory on a school than almost anything else they accomplish. That doesn’t mean that football is more important than other areas of the college experience, it just means that it’s worth the effort to make it available and make it something everyone connected with the school can be proud of. = gs: |He was a leader in dreceiving, yardage and touchdowns for the Wildcats in196667, and is stillranked in the top five lifetime categoryinallthreeareas. He played with the San Diego Chargers, and was a sports columnistfor the Daily Californianin El Cajon, Calif. before joining NFL Films.